InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Prophecy ❯ Mates? ( Chapter 29 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: mshutts 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Psychological / Hentai | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.10.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.0K | Visits: 2.1K | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Psychological / Hentai | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.10.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.0K | Visits: 2.1K | Status: Work In Progress
The Prophecy
By: mshutts
WARNING: incest
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other characters here-in except for Sturaki
* * * * *
Chapter 29: Mates?
As he carried his brother, he tried not to get lost in the scent. With every breath he inhaled, his youki was pushing him more and more to claim his baby brother as his mate. He knew intellectually that it was just the mating scent his baby brother was emitting at work, but it did not help any.
His youki still wanted his little brother. Holding him so close to him like this without claiming him was pure torture for Sesshoumaru. Over the years, he had mostly trained his youki to not look for a male as a mate through sheer determination of will, but now, with his baby brother smelling so much like a female, a female in heat, at that, he could barely restrain himself.
He was reasonably sure that his youki was only holding off because it was still under the impression that Inuyasha was in great need of sleep and the last thing his youki wanted was an unhealthy mate. As such, his youki was silently willing his brother to wake with one breath and sleep because he needed it and was safe with the next.
He glanced down at the smaller body nestled close to his and noted that he had changed position. Not sensing any difference in the change of heart rate or breathing, he assumed that his little brother was still asleep and wondered at how he was not even aware he was moving.
He supposed, on one level, that his brother’s youki might also be looking upon him as an intended mate. That would explain the current situation that he found himself in. His younger brother’s youki felt safe and protected in its intended mate’s care and would not wake the boy as a result. He wondered if it would have been different had it not been mating season.
However, this brought up a rather troubling question, was his brother responding to him because he was destined to be his mate or was he merely responding to the strong youki? Following this line of reasoning, a rather disturbing idea occurred to him. What if his brother had not been interested in the kitsune because, in comparison, the kitsune’s youki was weaker than his own?
It would be an unconscious decision to go with the potential mate that had a stronger youki after all. A stronger youki meant stronger pups. He had no idea why the possibility that his younger brother was only responding to him because of his stronger youki was bothering him so. He should be happy that that was all it was, yet he was not. It should not have even been an issue for Sesshoumaru, but it was teasing at the back of his brain, taunting him.
He wondered at what all this meant as he drew closer to Sturaki’s dwelling. It was now late in the afternoon. When he reached the ledge that the entrance to Sturaki’s dwelling was on, he stopped, contemplating the best way to awaken his sleeping brother.
He could not go into the dwelling with his younger brother still lying in his embrace, but his youki was still upset at the idea of waking his intended mate who was still in obvious need of rest. Sesshoumaru debated it with himself for a few more moments before finally becoming fed up and just dropping his brother on the ground none too gently.
He was fully expecting a flood of curses to come out at him for this act. When there was no immediate response from his brother, he began to get worried despite himself. His youki was furious. What if something had happened to his intended when he was dropped? Not only had he awoken his resting intended mate, he might have harmed him in addition to that. He nervously took a cursory sniff of the body on the ground, when nothing smelled wrong, he told him to get up.
Hearing the muttered cursing under his brother’s breath, he almost smiled. It sounded like, not only was his brother all right, he was feeling a little more like his normal self again. That was a great relief to his concerned elder brother, not that he would ever admit to it aloud.
Glad that he would not have to put up with the silent personality that he had been forced to endure this morning, he decided to tease his brother. It was also a slight test on his part to see just how far along his younger brother was in training his senses.
He refused to admit to himself that he was already assessing what type of work would need to be done on his little brother to make him a suitable Lord of the Western Lands. He had been trying to find his future mate young for a reason. It was much easier to take a mostly undeveloped mind and teach it to operate in the ways he needed it to if the individual was going to be his mate. If his younger brother was indeed to be his mate, it might already be too late to change what needed to be changed in his personality and the way he did things.
As he already had an idea of how much work would need to be done in the personality department, he was trying to get a better idea of what type of work would be needed in refining his senses. Only a relative few had senses that were heightened enough to see through the spell that Lady Sturaki had cast over her dwelling to keep unwanted visitors away.
As a result, he was not overly surprised when his brother had not seen anything. However, willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, he taunted him into looking closer. He watched as his younger brother appeared to internalize his attention and focus on the landscape once again. After a moment, his baby brother stopped and abruptly focused in on him again.
Unsure if he had actually found it or not, Sesshoumaru tried to find out if he had by answering his brother’s questions without giving too much away. Apparently, his brother was not in the mood to talk for he turned to depart partway through the conversation with his elder brother leaving him still unsure if he had sensed it or not.
Sucking up his pride for a moment, he told the retreating back why they were here. To his shock, his little brother turned right around and walked directly to the entrance, entering without missing a step. ‘I guess that answers that question,’ he thought.
Noticing that his younger brother had his sleeve over his nose, he almost smirked. That was apparently one thing they would have to work on. He could not go into diplomatic meetings covering his nose every time he did not like a smell. It was rude and rather ‘common’.
Announcing them, he waited for the witch to emerge from her sleeping room. She looked the same as she had the last time he had seen him. She even greeted them in a similar manner, though he found it odd that she called them the ‘Lords of the West’. Yes, he was the Lord of the West, but his little brother? Hardly, except maybe in the very strictest sense of the term.
What he had found more unusual than this was his baby brother’s reaction. He looked as if he had seen a ghost and then, using the hand that had been covering his nose pointed to the witch accusingly. “It’s you! You’re that voice!”
He wondered if his brother had taken leave of his senses when he noticed that the witch was smiling. “Yes, I am that voice.”
“But, but how?” he watched the look on his brother’s face change from confusion to suspicion in an instant. “You cast a spell on me, didn’t you?”
Lady Sturaki looked thoughtful. “I suppose you could call it that, although, this ‘spell’ was not meant to cause you any harm.”
“Not meant to cause me harm? What the hell was it meant to do then?!”
Sesshoumaru had no idea whatsoever what the two of them were talking about and it was starting to agitate him. He had learned from previous experience that not knowing things was a very dangerous proposition.
His youki was angry for an entirely different reason. It was becoming apparent that his intended was hiding things from him. That was one thing that was going to have to be corrected as soon as this business was finished. He could not have a mate withholding information from him, especially not information that was this potentially harmful.
As a combination of thoughts that he was perfectly within his rights to demand this information as the alpha mate and his natural unease at not knowing something, he demanded, “What are you talking about? What voice? What spell?”
“This has nothing to do with you, Sesshoumaru. It’s between me and the hag.”
Before he could respond, Lady Sturaki did. “You have not told him yet?”
“Why should I? If you wanted him to know so bad, why didn’t you cast this ‘spell’ on him, too.”
“The spell would not work on him. He is not open enough.”
“And I am?” he could clearly hear the disbelief in his younger brother’s voice and had to admit that he shared it. His baby brother was not exactly an ‘open’ individual.
“More than you know, little one,” she said with a smile. “Have you not felt the flow of life through the forest your whole life? Did you not feel the upset with the appearance of Naraku? Can you not feel the currents of life even now, in these stone walls?”
“What are you going on about, old woman?”
Sesshoumaru saw her eyes turn sad as she asked, “Why does your soul ache, Inuyasha? Why does it cry out for all who can listen to hear?”
“Listen here, hag, I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about. Stop going in circles. Get to the point.”
She sighed. “How did you find the entrance to my home, child?”
“I sensed the change in aura on the rock face,” Inuyasha said in an ‘I can’t believe you’re asking me such a dumb question’ tone of voice.
While that information surprised Sesshoumaru for that was not the way he had found it at all, it did not seem to astonish the witch. She seemed to have been expecting an answer like that. “Where is the nearest stream?”
“What does that matter?”
“Please, just answer the question.”
To his shock, Inuyasha paused a moment, picked a direction, pointed and stated a distance. He himself had had no idea where the closest stream was located, it was outside of his sensing range with all the other scents in this room. He was about to ask how his brother had found it, when the witch did instead.
Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders in response. “It’s there, isn’t it?”
“That was not the question. The question was how YOU found it. I am still waiting for your answer.”
He could see that his baby brother was getting bored rather quickly. “I just sense a stream in that direction, okay? Why are you making such a big deal out of it?”
Sesshoumaru could remain silent no longer, “You could not smell it from this distance.”
“Feh. Of course not. I never said I SMELLED it, I said I SENSED it.”
Now he was really confused and confusion was not a state the youkai lord liked finding himself in. “If you did not use scent, how did you ‘sense’ it, little brother?”
“I just did. What does it matter?”
He was about to continue his line of questioning, getting more and more frustrated with his intended mate, when Lady Sturaki interrupted. “It is no use asking him, Lord of the West. He does not know himself. He has just always been this way. He knows no other way to be.”
“Excuse me, but I’m standing right here. What is it with people and talking about me like I’m not even there?!”
“My apologies, little one. Your mate did not understand what you were trying to tell him.”
His little brother and the witch continued to talk, but he was no longer paying attention. Lady Sturaki had just referred to him as Inuyasha’s mate. She had done it so off-handedly that he had almost not even noticed.
He had traveled all this way, not even gotten a chance to ask his question, and she answered it without a moment’s thought, just an aside comment, another way to refer to him. Sure his youki had been looking upon his baby brother as his intended for days now, but this was far more concrete than that. It was an external confirmation of an internal feeling that had been tickling his mind for the past couple of days.
He was not sure what shocked him more, the way she had just come out and said it like it was nothing, or the way this information had not even fazed his baby brother. It was almost as if Inuyasha had already known this. In fact, if his lack of reaction was any indication, his little brother had not only known it, but had also accepted it already.
This led him to wonder just how long his brother had known. Thinking back, he remembered how his brother had responded to Bokusenou’s information. He had immediately gotten into an argument with the tree demon over whether or not he should tell his intended who he was. Then, there was the incident in the tree with his son. He had said he was his then, however Sesshoumaru had mostly written it off to not wanting him to harm his kitsune.
He wondered if it had just started recently when he remembered back to the very first time his baby brother had met him. He had come to him, not the other way around. The toddler had known where he was, even though he was back a ways in the woods.
At the time he had been fairly impressed. He had watched his very young brother stop playing with his ball and sniff the air. Then, he had come right in his direction. Not many children so young could have followed his scent trail so far. But, now he wondered, did his brother smell him, or did he ‘sense’ him?
And then there was the issue of what he had done when he had first seen him. Thinking back on the entire incident, he realized that, at no time did the toddler show any fear of him. Even when he had been choking him almost to death, he had not gotten afraid.
He also remembered what his baby brother had said as an explanation for why he had run up and hugged him. He had said he ‘smelled good and looked nice’. At the time, he had been appalled; this shame on his family’s name was attempting to pay HIM compliments? He had thought that perhaps he was trying to gain favor in some way so that the elder youkai would not be tempted to kill him.
But now, he was wondering if his younger brother had known all the way back then. Was it possible that Inuyasha had always known that he was supposed to mate with his brother one day? However, if that was the case, why had he never told him? This was surely something the pup would have thought necessary to ask about.
He supposed there was always the possibility that his younger brother had never figured out what it meant. After all, hadn’t he, himself, admitted to not being aware of why he had always known where his baby brother was? He wondered if this connection was something he had just not been aware of.
He drew his attention away from that and thought about what she had been asking Inuyasha. What had she been saying? His baby brother’s soul was aching? Why? For some reason this suddenly seemed to be a very important question. He would not have concerned himself with it in the past, but he just could not seem to let it go, and so, he asked, “Why did you say my little brother’s soul ached?”
All other talk in the room stopped. They both looked at him, the look on his brother’s face making it obvious that he had forgotten he was in the room. However, the witch showed no signs of answering the question. “I asked you a question, Lady Sturaki.”
“Why are you asking me? Perhaps you should ask your mate instead.”
“I have yet to determine who my mate will be. Do not presume to be able to tell me something of that importance,” deciding to ignore for the moment that that was, in fact, what he had come here to ask her.
“See? I told you,” he heard his brother say, only to have him shushed by the witch.
“You are not being open, Lord Sesshoumaru. Despite the many warnings to the contrary, you are still as closed off as you were when we first met. Open your mind and heart. Allow yourself to feel the truth and you will know it.”
“This has nothing to do with me. The question dealt with my little brother, not myself.”
Sturaki looked away from him and towards Inuyasha. “I think you should answer his questions, child.”
Sesshoumaru watched his brother glance from him to the witch and back again. He then heard, “Why should I tell him? He doesn’t want to know. He’s not going to listen anyway. He doesn’t care.”
Sesshoumaru felt a growl rise up at these words. Stepping towards his little brother, he said, “This is not the first time you have accused me of such today, little brother. I demand you explain why you presume to tell me what I think or care about.”
He saw fire flash in the golden orbs of his baby brother. “I may not know what you care about, but I definitely know what you don’t.”
This conversation was enraging his youki. ‘How dare his intended mate say these things?’ it raged. “Do not presume to tell me what I feel.”
“That’s just it. You don’t care. You don’t care about me, you don’t care about you, you don’t care about anything!”
He was still looking at his brother when he heard the witch interrupt. “Inuyasha, you know that’s not true. Remember, I asked you to look after your mate? He does care about things.”
“Yeah, well, he sure has a weird way of showing it.”
She laughed lightly, “And you do not?”
He watched in amazement as his younger brother said, “Feh,” and lowered his head, a blush gracing his cheeks. He wondered who this witch was to his brother that she acted so familiar with him. What was it with his brother and women in possession of mystical powers? First those two priestesses of his and now this?
Something about his baby brother obviously attracted them to him. Maybe it was that whole ‘sensing’ thing they had been discussing before. Was it some type of ‘mystical power’ in its own right?
Putting that aside, he brought his attention back to the current conversation. “Be that as it may, I am still waiting for an answer to my initial question. Why does your soul ache, younger brother?”
He waited patiently for an answer. When it became apparent that his little brother had no intention of answering him, he began to consider other ways to get a response out of him. However, just as he was about to implement some of these other methods, the witch answered.
“His soul aches because it is incomplete.”
“What do you mean, incomplete?”
“Only half of his soul resides in his body. The other half is elsewhere. It has always been so.”
“Where is the other half of his soul located?” he found himself asking with some concern. How could his brother have lived so long without half his soul? It did not make any sense to him. He should have been dead by now.
“Why are you acting like you care?! Stop pretending! Stop making me think that you might actually care for me!” Inuyasha yelled at him, breaking him out of train of thought.
His youki had no idea where his intended mate had gotten the idea that he did not care for him from. As such, it also had no idea why he was so angry. Without thinking, Sesshoumaru responded, “I am not pretending, little brother. I do, in fact, care for you.”
* * * * *
Next chapter, Inuyasha.
A/N: In regards to Inuyasha ‘sensing’ things: My argument behind this comes from a number of things we see in the anime (I don’t own all the magna, so I’m not as sure about that). In the first episode, Inuyasha comes back before Kagome pulls out the arrow. He did not respond to any other sounds in the forest previously, so he must have ‘sensed’ her specifically. In the first movie, he was able to talk to Kagome through the god-tree. He could ‘sense’ her presence there even though she was in her own time. Again, when he first learned how to use the wind scar, it was because he was blinded by Sesshoumaru’s poison. The entire time, he had been told that he needed to ‘see’ the wind scar, but it was not until after he could no longer look for it that he found it. On top of that, he ‘sensed’ the backlash wave without even knowing that it was supposed to exist. I know there are more examples, but I think that is enough to at least open the door for the possibility. There is also the fact that he would not see it as anything unusual. It would be like someone being shocked that you could taste bananas. It would have never occurred to you that it was something you should not have been able to do so you would not have seen it as anything special. In fact, you would most likely be surprised that they couldn’t do it as well. Well, that’s the end of that rant. Sorry for overwhelming you with info.
As always, thanks so much for reading and/or reviewing.
By: mshutts
WARNING: incest
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other characters here-in except for Sturaki
* * * * *
Chapter 29: Mates?
As he carried his brother, he tried not to get lost in the scent. With every breath he inhaled, his youki was pushing him more and more to claim his baby brother as his mate. He knew intellectually that it was just the mating scent his baby brother was emitting at work, but it did not help any.
His youki still wanted his little brother. Holding him so close to him like this without claiming him was pure torture for Sesshoumaru. Over the years, he had mostly trained his youki to not look for a male as a mate through sheer determination of will, but now, with his baby brother smelling so much like a female, a female in heat, at that, he could barely restrain himself.
He was reasonably sure that his youki was only holding off because it was still under the impression that Inuyasha was in great need of sleep and the last thing his youki wanted was an unhealthy mate. As such, his youki was silently willing his brother to wake with one breath and sleep because he needed it and was safe with the next.
He glanced down at the smaller body nestled close to his and noted that he had changed position. Not sensing any difference in the change of heart rate or breathing, he assumed that his little brother was still asleep and wondered at how he was not even aware he was moving.
He supposed, on one level, that his brother’s youki might also be looking upon him as an intended mate. That would explain the current situation that he found himself in. His younger brother’s youki felt safe and protected in its intended mate’s care and would not wake the boy as a result. He wondered if it would have been different had it not been mating season.
However, this brought up a rather troubling question, was his brother responding to him because he was destined to be his mate or was he merely responding to the strong youki? Following this line of reasoning, a rather disturbing idea occurred to him. What if his brother had not been interested in the kitsune because, in comparison, the kitsune’s youki was weaker than his own?
It would be an unconscious decision to go with the potential mate that had a stronger youki after all. A stronger youki meant stronger pups. He had no idea why the possibility that his younger brother was only responding to him because of his stronger youki was bothering him so. He should be happy that that was all it was, yet he was not. It should not have even been an issue for Sesshoumaru, but it was teasing at the back of his brain, taunting him.
He wondered at what all this meant as he drew closer to Sturaki’s dwelling. It was now late in the afternoon. When he reached the ledge that the entrance to Sturaki’s dwelling was on, he stopped, contemplating the best way to awaken his sleeping brother.
He could not go into the dwelling with his younger brother still lying in his embrace, but his youki was still upset at the idea of waking his intended mate who was still in obvious need of rest. Sesshoumaru debated it with himself for a few more moments before finally becoming fed up and just dropping his brother on the ground none too gently.
He was fully expecting a flood of curses to come out at him for this act. When there was no immediate response from his brother, he began to get worried despite himself. His youki was furious. What if something had happened to his intended when he was dropped? Not only had he awoken his resting intended mate, he might have harmed him in addition to that. He nervously took a cursory sniff of the body on the ground, when nothing smelled wrong, he told him to get up.
Hearing the muttered cursing under his brother’s breath, he almost smiled. It sounded like, not only was his brother all right, he was feeling a little more like his normal self again. That was a great relief to his concerned elder brother, not that he would ever admit to it aloud.
Glad that he would not have to put up with the silent personality that he had been forced to endure this morning, he decided to tease his brother. It was also a slight test on his part to see just how far along his younger brother was in training his senses.
He refused to admit to himself that he was already assessing what type of work would need to be done on his little brother to make him a suitable Lord of the Western Lands. He had been trying to find his future mate young for a reason. It was much easier to take a mostly undeveloped mind and teach it to operate in the ways he needed it to if the individual was going to be his mate. If his younger brother was indeed to be his mate, it might already be too late to change what needed to be changed in his personality and the way he did things.
As he already had an idea of how much work would need to be done in the personality department, he was trying to get a better idea of what type of work would be needed in refining his senses. Only a relative few had senses that were heightened enough to see through the spell that Lady Sturaki had cast over her dwelling to keep unwanted visitors away.
As a result, he was not overly surprised when his brother had not seen anything. However, willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, he taunted him into looking closer. He watched as his younger brother appeared to internalize his attention and focus on the landscape once again. After a moment, his baby brother stopped and abruptly focused in on him again.
Unsure if he had actually found it or not, Sesshoumaru tried to find out if he had by answering his brother’s questions without giving too much away. Apparently, his brother was not in the mood to talk for he turned to depart partway through the conversation with his elder brother leaving him still unsure if he had sensed it or not.
Sucking up his pride for a moment, he told the retreating back why they were here. To his shock, his little brother turned right around and walked directly to the entrance, entering without missing a step. ‘I guess that answers that question,’ he thought.
Noticing that his younger brother had his sleeve over his nose, he almost smirked. That was apparently one thing they would have to work on. He could not go into diplomatic meetings covering his nose every time he did not like a smell. It was rude and rather ‘common’.
Announcing them, he waited for the witch to emerge from her sleeping room. She looked the same as she had the last time he had seen him. She even greeted them in a similar manner, though he found it odd that she called them the ‘Lords of the West’. Yes, he was the Lord of the West, but his little brother? Hardly, except maybe in the very strictest sense of the term.
What he had found more unusual than this was his baby brother’s reaction. He looked as if he had seen a ghost and then, using the hand that had been covering his nose pointed to the witch accusingly. “It’s you! You’re that voice!”
He wondered if his brother had taken leave of his senses when he noticed that the witch was smiling. “Yes, I am that voice.”
“But, but how?” he watched the look on his brother’s face change from confusion to suspicion in an instant. “You cast a spell on me, didn’t you?”
Lady Sturaki looked thoughtful. “I suppose you could call it that, although, this ‘spell’ was not meant to cause you any harm.”
“Not meant to cause me harm? What the hell was it meant to do then?!”
Sesshoumaru had no idea whatsoever what the two of them were talking about and it was starting to agitate him. He had learned from previous experience that not knowing things was a very dangerous proposition.
His youki was angry for an entirely different reason. It was becoming apparent that his intended was hiding things from him. That was one thing that was going to have to be corrected as soon as this business was finished. He could not have a mate withholding information from him, especially not information that was this potentially harmful.
As a combination of thoughts that he was perfectly within his rights to demand this information as the alpha mate and his natural unease at not knowing something, he demanded, “What are you talking about? What voice? What spell?”
“This has nothing to do with you, Sesshoumaru. It’s between me and the hag.”
Before he could respond, Lady Sturaki did. “You have not told him yet?”
“Why should I? If you wanted him to know so bad, why didn’t you cast this ‘spell’ on him, too.”
“The spell would not work on him. He is not open enough.”
“And I am?” he could clearly hear the disbelief in his younger brother’s voice and had to admit that he shared it. His baby brother was not exactly an ‘open’ individual.
“More than you know, little one,” she said with a smile. “Have you not felt the flow of life through the forest your whole life? Did you not feel the upset with the appearance of Naraku? Can you not feel the currents of life even now, in these stone walls?”
“What are you going on about, old woman?”
Sesshoumaru saw her eyes turn sad as she asked, “Why does your soul ache, Inuyasha? Why does it cry out for all who can listen to hear?”
“Listen here, hag, I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about. Stop going in circles. Get to the point.”
She sighed. “How did you find the entrance to my home, child?”
“I sensed the change in aura on the rock face,” Inuyasha said in an ‘I can’t believe you’re asking me such a dumb question’ tone of voice.
While that information surprised Sesshoumaru for that was not the way he had found it at all, it did not seem to astonish the witch. She seemed to have been expecting an answer like that. “Where is the nearest stream?”
“What does that matter?”
“Please, just answer the question.”
To his shock, Inuyasha paused a moment, picked a direction, pointed and stated a distance. He himself had had no idea where the closest stream was located, it was outside of his sensing range with all the other scents in this room. He was about to ask how his brother had found it, when the witch did instead.
Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders in response. “It’s there, isn’t it?”
“That was not the question. The question was how YOU found it. I am still waiting for your answer.”
He could see that his baby brother was getting bored rather quickly. “I just sense a stream in that direction, okay? Why are you making such a big deal out of it?”
Sesshoumaru could remain silent no longer, “You could not smell it from this distance.”
“Feh. Of course not. I never said I SMELLED it, I said I SENSED it.”
Now he was really confused and confusion was not a state the youkai lord liked finding himself in. “If you did not use scent, how did you ‘sense’ it, little brother?”
“I just did. What does it matter?”
He was about to continue his line of questioning, getting more and more frustrated with his intended mate, when Lady Sturaki interrupted. “It is no use asking him, Lord of the West. He does not know himself. He has just always been this way. He knows no other way to be.”
“Excuse me, but I’m standing right here. What is it with people and talking about me like I’m not even there?!”
“My apologies, little one. Your mate did not understand what you were trying to tell him.”
His little brother and the witch continued to talk, but he was no longer paying attention. Lady Sturaki had just referred to him as Inuyasha’s mate. She had done it so off-handedly that he had almost not even noticed.
He had traveled all this way, not even gotten a chance to ask his question, and she answered it without a moment’s thought, just an aside comment, another way to refer to him. Sure his youki had been looking upon his baby brother as his intended for days now, but this was far more concrete than that. It was an external confirmation of an internal feeling that had been tickling his mind for the past couple of days.
He was not sure what shocked him more, the way she had just come out and said it like it was nothing, or the way this information had not even fazed his baby brother. It was almost as if Inuyasha had already known this. In fact, if his lack of reaction was any indication, his little brother had not only known it, but had also accepted it already.
This led him to wonder just how long his brother had known. Thinking back, he remembered how his brother had responded to Bokusenou’s information. He had immediately gotten into an argument with the tree demon over whether or not he should tell his intended who he was. Then, there was the incident in the tree with his son. He had said he was his then, however Sesshoumaru had mostly written it off to not wanting him to harm his kitsune.
He wondered if it had just started recently when he remembered back to the very first time his baby brother had met him. He had come to him, not the other way around. The toddler had known where he was, even though he was back a ways in the woods.
At the time he had been fairly impressed. He had watched his very young brother stop playing with his ball and sniff the air. Then, he had come right in his direction. Not many children so young could have followed his scent trail so far. But, now he wondered, did his brother smell him, or did he ‘sense’ him?
And then there was the issue of what he had done when he had first seen him. Thinking back on the entire incident, he realized that, at no time did the toddler show any fear of him. Even when he had been choking him almost to death, he had not gotten afraid.
He also remembered what his baby brother had said as an explanation for why he had run up and hugged him. He had said he ‘smelled good and looked nice’. At the time, he had been appalled; this shame on his family’s name was attempting to pay HIM compliments? He had thought that perhaps he was trying to gain favor in some way so that the elder youkai would not be tempted to kill him.
But now, he was wondering if his younger brother had known all the way back then. Was it possible that Inuyasha had always known that he was supposed to mate with his brother one day? However, if that was the case, why had he never told him? This was surely something the pup would have thought necessary to ask about.
He supposed there was always the possibility that his younger brother had never figured out what it meant. After all, hadn’t he, himself, admitted to not being aware of why he had always known where his baby brother was? He wondered if this connection was something he had just not been aware of.
He drew his attention away from that and thought about what she had been asking Inuyasha. What had she been saying? His baby brother’s soul was aching? Why? For some reason this suddenly seemed to be a very important question. He would not have concerned himself with it in the past, but he just could not seem to let it go, and so, he asked, “Why did you say my little brother’s soul ached?”
All other talk in the room stopped. They both looked at him, the look on his brother’s face making it obvious that he had forgotten he was in the room. However, the witch showed no signs of answering the question. “I asked you a question, Lady Sturaki.”
“Why are you asking me? Perhaps you should ask your mate instead.”
“I have yet to determine who my mate will be. Do not presume to be able to tell me something of that importance,” deciding to ignore for the moment that that was, in fact, what he had come here to ask her.
“See? I told you,” he heard his brother say, only to have him shushed by the witch.
“You are not being open, Lord Sesshoumaru. Despite the many warnings to the contrary, you are still as closed off as you were when we first met. Open your mind and heart. Allow yourself to feel the truth and you will know it.”
“This has nothing to do with me. The question dealt with my little brother, not myself.”
Sturaki looked away from him and towards Inuyasha. “I think you should answer his questions, child.”
Sesshoumaru watched his brother glance from him to the witch and back again. He then heard, “Why should I tell him? He doesn’t want to know. He’s not going to listen anyway. He doesn’t care.”
Sesshoumaru felt a growl rise up at these words. Stepping towards his little brother, he said, “This is not the first time you have accused me of such today, little brother. I demand you explain why you presume to tell me what I think or care about.”
He saw fire flash in the golden orbs of his baby brother. “I may not know what you care about, but I definitely know what you don’t.”
This conversation was enraging his youki. ‘How dare his intended mate say these things?’ it raged. “Do not presume to tell me what I feel.”
“That’s just it. You don’t care. You don’t care about me, you don’t care about you, you don’t care about anything!”
He was still looking at his brother when he heard the witch interrupt. “Inuyasha, you know that’s not true. Remember, I asked you to look after your mate? He does care about things.”
“Yeah, well, he sure has a weird way of showing it.”
She laughed lightly, “And you do not?”
He watched in amazement as his younger brother said, “Feh,” and lowered his head, a blush gracing his cheeks. He wondered who this witch was to his brother that she acted so familiar with him. What was it with his brother and women in possession of mystical powers? First those two priestesses of his and now this?
Something about his baby brother obviously attracted them to him. Maybe it was that whole ‘sensing’ thing they had been discussing before. Was it some type of ‘mystical power’ in its own right?
Putting that aside, he brought his attention back to the current conversation. “Be that as it may, I am still waiting for an answer to my initial question. Why does your soul ache, younger brother?”
He waited patiently for an answer. When it became apparent that his little brother had no intention of answering him, he began to consider other ways to get a response out of him. However, just as he was about to implement some of these other methods, the witch answered.
“His soul aches because it is incomplete.”
“What do you mean, incomplete?”
“Only half of his soul resides in his body. The other half is elsewhere. It has always been so.”
“Where is the other half of his soul located?” he found himself asking with some concern. How could his brother have lived so long without half his soul? It did not make any sense to him. He should have been dead by now.
“Why are you acting like you care?! Stop pretending! Stop making me think that you might actually care for me!” Inuyasha yelled at him, breaking him out of train of thought.
His youki had no idea where his intended mate had gotten the idea that he did not care for him from. As such, it also had no idea why he was so angry. Without thinking, Sesshoumaru responded, “I am not pretending, little brother. I do, in fact, care for you.”
* * * * *
Next chapter, Inuyasha.
A/N: In regards to Inuyasha ‘sensing’ things: My argument behind this comes from a number of things we see in the anime (I don’t own all the magna, so I’m not as sure about that). In the first episode, Inuyasha comes back before Kagome pulls out the arrow. He did not respond to any other sounds in the forest previously, so he must have ‘sensed’ her specifically. In the first movie, he was able to talk to Kagome through the god-tree. He could ‘sense’ her presence there even though she was in her own time. Again, when he first learned how to use the wind scar, it was because he was blinded by Sesshoumaru’s poison. The entire time, he had been told that he needed to ‘see’ the wind scar, but it was not until after he could no longer look for it that he found it. On top of that, he ‘sensed’ the backlash wave without even knowing that it was supposed to exist. I know there are more examples, but I think that is enough to at least open the door for the possibility. There is also the fact that he would not see it as anything unusual. It would be like someone being shocked that you could taste bananas. It would have never occurred to you that it was something you should not have been able to do so you would not have seen it as anything special. In fact, you would most likely be surprised that they couldn’t do it as well. Well, that’s the end of that rant. Sorry for overwhelming you with info.
As always, thanks so much for reading and/or reviewing.